FSU's Early Head Start program making a difference in Gadsden County

12:23 PM,
Jan. 2, 2013

Tomaka Ceasor and her three children, Iyana Smith, Jazzlynn Smith and Sierra Smith pose for a Christmas portrait on Thursday before a Head Start visit in Havana on Thursday. FSU serves 69 clients in an unusual university-based Early Head Start program focusing on young children and their mothers.

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A single mother of three children ages 3 and younger, Ceasor works part time as a cook with the National Guard's 160th Reserve Unit. She's also taking online classes as she pursues a degree in psychology.

The Havana resident says she would never be able to stay on top of everything if it wasn't for Early Head Start, a program Florida State University has administered in Gadsden County for the past 16 years. An EHS home visitor has been spending up to two hours a week with Ceasor and her children for the past year, since she was pregnant with Jazzlynn, ...